A Study on Spatial Decision Support Systems for Epidemic Disease Prevention Based on ArcGIS

Abstract

Having analyzed the current status and existing problems of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications in epidemiology, this chapter proposes a method to establish a spatial decision support system (SDSS) for the prevention of epidemic diseases by integrating the COM GIS, spatial database, gps, remote sensing, and communication technologies, as well as ASP and ActiveX software development technologies. One important issue in constructing the SDSS for epidemic disease prevention concerns the incorporation of epidemic spread models in a GIS. The chapter begins with a description of the capabilities of GIS in epidemic prevention. Some established models of an epidemic spread are studied to extract essential computational parameters. A technical schema is then proposed to integrate epidemic models using a GIS and relevant geospatial technologies. The GIS and modeling platforms share a common spatial database and the modeled results can be visualized spatially by desktop and Web clients. A complete solution for establishing the SDSS for epidemic disease prevention based on the model integrating methods and the ArcGIS software is suggested in this chapter. The proposed SDSS comprises several sub-systems: data acquisition, network communication, model integration, epidemic disease information spatial database, epidemic disease information query and statistical analysis, epidemic disease dynamic surveillance, epidemic disease information spatial analysis and decision support, as well as epidemic disease information publishing based on the Web GIS technology. The design process and sample VC and VB programming codes of the epidemic case precaution are used as an example to illustrate the basic principles and methods of the system development that integrates GIS functions with models of epidemic spread. A case study of AIDS in the Yunnan Province of China exemplifies the systems spatial analytical functions through its spatial database access and statistical analysis tools.